Photovoltaic cells or solar cells are photovoltaic components for direct generation of electrical current from sunlight. Due to the growing demand for clean sources of energy, the manufacture of solar cells has expanded dramatically in recent years and continues to expand. Various types of solar cells and solar cell substructures exist and continue to be developed. For example, solar cells include a substrate, a back contact layer on the substrate, an absorber layer on the back contact layer, a buffer layer on the absorber layer, and a front contact layer above the buffer layer. In some types of solar cells, the front contact layer can include a layer of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material forming a window for light to pass through to the other layers below.
During the formation of the layers, the solar cells undergo at least one scribing process to enable the division of large solar modules into an array of smaller series of interconnected structures on the substrate. The interconnected structures can include, for example, three scribe lines, referred to as P1, P2, and P3, that are drawn in a P1 scribe process, a P2 scribe process, and a P3 scribe process, respectively. The P1 scribe line extends through the back contact layer and is filled with the absorber layer material. The P2 scribe line extends through the buffer layer and the absorber layer and is filled with the front contact layer material. The P3 scribe line extends through each of the front contact layer, buffer layer, and absorber layer.
Each scribing process uses a laser-based or mechanical scribing technique. For example, a laser scriber can be used to segment the back contact layer by scribing P1. The scriber utilizes a wavelength of 1064 nanometers (nm) and nanosecond pulses. However, such a laser scriber may be ineffective for drawing the P2 and P3 scribe lines. As such, a mechanical scribing technique using a force-controlled stylus can be used for scribing the P2 and P3 lines. Although the mechanical scribing technique may work for scribing the P2 line, the technique may cause delamination and/or chipping of the front contact layer. Moreover, the P3 scriber can become damaged or worn over time due to all the layers that the scriber needs scribe through for the P3 scribing process.